


third base is when you talk about your mutual daddy issues

by cinderfell



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Background Keyleth/Pike, Background Vax/Percy, F/F, First Kiss, Softball Is An Inherently Gay Sport And It's Only Right That I Take Advantage Of That
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-21
Updated: 2017-06-21
Packaged: 2018-11-17 01:56:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11265558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cinderfell/pseuds/cinderfell
Summary: Perhaps Vex has more in common with her attractive third baseman than she thinks.





	third base is when you talk about your mutual daddy issues

**Author's Note:**

> yes, that's really the title. _yes_ , i have six years worth of firsthand experience about how gay this sport is.

“Vex’ahlia, my dear, would you mind braiding my hair back for me?”

Vex blinks, looking up from her phone-- subtly trying to check for texts from Vax without being too obvious, mostly because she doesn’t want to get yelled at by Coach Kima for not paying attention to the game when her team is up to bat, but a little bit because she’s reading texts about Vax’s _kinda maybe sorta_ date with Percy, a _study date_ Vax had stressed to her earlier but she hadn’t listened because she _knows_ him, and she doesn’t want anybody reading over her shoulder or something-- to find dark skin and pale eyes and snow-white hair in front of her. Zahra Hydris, lovely and vaguely intimidating as ever, stands before her, batting gloves on and her red batting helmet under one arm.

“Uh, sure. How early are you in the batting order?”

“Third up to bat after this, but I was hoping you could do something quick for me.” Zahra flashes her the most charming smile then. “Your braids are always so lovely and a ponytail just isn’t cutting it right now.”

Well, it’s hard to say no to that.

(Although a month ago she might’ve. Her and Zahra… did not get off to a good start at the beginning of the season. Vex couldn’t even say what it was, really, just that they’d latched onto each other as pseudo-rivals right away. Luckily they’ve both mellowed out recently, the two of them becoming vaguely friendly.)

So Zahra straddles the bench beside Vex, her back to her as she flips her long white hair over her shoulders so Vex can get at it. When she tangles her fingers in it, it’s impossibly soft and silky. She gathers it into pieces, her fingertips brushing briefly against the tip of Zahra’s ear. Zahra shivers. She knows Zahra asked for something simple because she’s up soon, but she can’t help but make it a little fancy, be a bit of a show-off because-- well.

Well.

She finishes it right before Zahra has to get up, admittedly rushing it a bit at the end, and when she announces it Zahra turns to grin at her and-- wow. Vex’s breath catches. _Wow._ The braid looks beautiful, as does--

She clears her throat. “Good luck, Zahra.”

Zahra picks up her bat and stands, glancing at the field. “I don’t need luck, darling. But I appreciate the sentiment.”

And then she walks off, bat over her shoulder and helmet pushed on over the braid, the tail of it swaying. Vex watches her go, a funny warmth in her chest.

She steps up to the plate and shifts onto her back foot, arm raised. The first pitch goes high, called ball. The second is head on, fast, and the perfect height for Zahra.

The bat connects with a loud crack, sending the ball flying. It’s fast, not a pop-fly but just high enough that it’s out of jumping range. It flies over the pitcher’s head, then second’s, then center field-- going, going, gone. Over the back fence of the field and into the treeline beyond.

Vex jumps to her feet-- as does the rest of the team, obviously, but she’s the first, practically knocking poor Pike off the bench in her excited flail of limbs, yelling incoherently-- it’s meant to be something encouraging, she’s sure.

Zahra casually walks her way around the bases, grinning wide and pausing at third so she can give an elegant little bow at the rest of her team over in the dugout. For a moment Vex feels the other girl’s eyes land on her and she can’t help but feel like the bow is directed at her, at least a bit. The ump gives a long sigh and gestures for her to keep walking.

When Zahra comes back in from the field she pulls her helmet off in a single smooth move, far too smooth for Vex’s taste considering she’s very familiar with the insides of those helmets and there should be nothing smooth or charming associated with those awful sweaty things, and flips her braid back-- and it’s subtle, but Vex’s eyes are sharp and she catches the way Zahra’s hand brushes briefly against the end of the braid, right where the tie is, and subtly pulls it off, sending all of Vex’s hard work tumbling down around the other girl’s shoulders in a cascade of white.

Zahra smiles slyly when she catches Vex’s eyes, dropping her helmet on the bench as she walks up to her, a slight sway in her hips that Vex finds almost hypnotizing. “Oh dear, it appears my braid came undone when I took my helmet off. Such a shame, it was so lovely! You should do it again, if you’re so inclined.”

Vex suddenly feels as if there’s a joke she isn’t fucking getting.

She gestures to the part of the bench beside her anyways.

Zahra sits down on Vex’s lap instead. Well, on Vex’s knees, really. but Vex isn’t really interested in splitting hairs here because there is an incredibly hot girl sitting on her.

Vex’s breath catches, the warm-- if more than a little sweaty-- weight of her rendering her speechless.

After a moment of silence and stillness, Zahra looks over her shoulder at Vex and flutters her eyelashes. “What’s wrong, darling? Are you no longer offering?”

That shocks Vex’s system back into responsiveness. Feeling the heat rise up into her cheeks, she clears her throat and starts braiding. It’s not nearly as good as the first one, mostly because she’s _heavily_ distracted.

When it’s done, Zahra grins and reaches back to pat it gently. “Thank you so much, Vex.”

And then she twists around and kisses her on the cheek.

Vex’s brain short circuits.

With that, Zahra gets to her feet again and walks off to talk to Grog, who’s leaning against the dugout fence having a conversation with Keyleth, who’s in her batting gear waiting to go up.

Pike gives her a weird look from her other side.

“What?” Vex asks incredulously when she notices, finding her voice yet again.

Pike regards her for a moment. Finally, she declares, “You are super fucked.”

Vex squints at the other girl. Short, blonde, sweet, and deliciously blunt and intimidating when she needs to be, Pike Trickfoot is one hell of a catcher and an even better friend. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Pike rolls her eyes. “I said the same thing when you asked me about Keyleth, Vex.”

Vex’s face flushes an even deeper red. “A coincidence.”

“Sure.” But the look Pike gives her tells her that she clearly doesn’t believe that and she clearly isn’t going to drop it.

 

They win. It’s not all surprising, not after Zahra’s amazing hit. After that they just keep snowballing, gaining more and more momentum while the other team becomes increasingly demoralized-- and it shows in the way both teams play. They shake hands with the other team and pack their things up, riding high off the good vibes of winning.

Some of them gather up in the bleachers to watch the next game-- a rec center league one, not a high school one, and it’s slow pitch softball too. Pike and Keyleth cozy up against each other in the far corner, splitting cereal bars that Keyleth brought in her bag. Grog joins them, reaching into his backpack and pulling out a bag of beef jerky and a couple of Slim Jims that he passes over to the girls.

Vex finds herself sitting next to Zahra a few feet away from them, nervously bouncing her leg. Zahra twirls the end of her long braid between her fingers and occasionally Vex catches her looking at her out of the corner of her eyes with the most curious expression.

They sit out on the top of the bleachers long after the other teams have left, long after Pike and Keyleth say goodbye and walk hand in hand by Grog’s side to go find Keyleth’s beat up green minivan, long past the sun sinking down behind the line of trees on the other side of the outfield fence. They sit until the moon rises.

They chat back and forth absently, a lot of small talk. Talk about the game. Zahra’s home run comes up more than once and the other girl seems flattered.

Vex feels bad, honestly.

She’s spent most of the season being standoffish and rude to the other girl, due in no small part to-- well, to jealousy, if she’s being frank. Zahra presents herself with such eloquence, such _elegance_ and confidence in everything she does. She bats better than Vex can, has an almost infuriatingly good arm that makes her the best third baseman on the team. Vex tries her best to pretend otherwise, but she is _jealous_.

And maybe a little bit of something else too, frustration maybe. Frustration over--

Well, it should be obvious by now, shouldn’t it?

The point is, Vex comes to a realization as they talk, even if they don’t talk about anything particularly interesting or profound: despite her outwardly cool and confident persona, Zahra seems incredibly lonely. She hides it well, but Vex knows somebody like her when she sees them. Like calls to like, and there’s undeniably a connection between them, something that clicks once Vex stops being stubborn and trying to pit herself against the other girl.

Perhaps that’s why they were the way they were at first: they saw too much of themselves in the other.

“You’re from money,” Vex blurts out finally, because she’s been thinking about it a lot for a long time, one hand playing with the frayed edge of the string friendship bracelet that mirrors her brother’s.

“Ah.” Zahra smiles, almost cryptically, like she knew this would come up eventually. “What gave it away? The equipment?”

Vex feels heat rise to her face. Suddenly she’s grateful that the night probably hides it at least partially. “Among other things.”

“So are you,” Zahra says, and Vex wonders how much Zahra knows about her, really. Then again, what does she really know about Zahra beyond the softball field? “Syldor Vessar is a well-known man, and a well off one at that.”

“My father is from money,” Vex corrects. “My brother and I… are not. Not until recently.”

“Ah.” Zahra’s gaze shifts down to their bags sitting on the row beneath them. “Your gear is all used despite your father’s money,” she observes.

Vex laughs bitterly. “My father doesn’t give a shit, like with most things involving Vax and I. He thinks softball is a waste of time and won’t engage with this any more than signing the agreement to let me play, much less pay for things. I worked for it all myself.” And she’s proud of that fact. Scraped together everything for months, saved every penny she could and endured a great numbers of greed and pennypincher jokes from her brother and their friends. (Funnily enough, Percy-- the literal politicians’ son born into money-- was probably the one who teased her the least, even respected her for it. There are a lot of reasons why she likes Percy and considers him one of her closest friends, a lot of reasons why she wishes Vax would just get over himself and kiss the damn nerd already, and his strange understanding of her is one of them.) She can’t help the little bit of jealousy that wells up as she looks down at Zahra’s bag of equipment. “Must be nice having top notch equipment.”

Zahra smiles again, but this time there’s a sadness in it that catches Vex off guard. “My father knows softball keeps me busy, keeps me out of his way. It also keeps me on a strict schedule, so he always knows where I am if he decides to swoop in and grab me.” Now that she mentions it, Vex recalls several times a nice car has pulled up during practice or even games and Zahra had visibly deflated, leaving whatever she was doing to get in the car and drive away. It makes sense that it would be Mr. Hydris, but still… Vex feels an uncomfortable weight in her stomach as she remembers the way Zahra’s usual confidence melts when that happens. “So he’s willing to funnel money into keeping it that way. Perhaps it’s for the best, really. It’s better than before, when I used to be locked in my room all day studying and doing homework.”

Oh.

They both go silent for a long time.

Finally, Vex says, “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t,” Zahra says, and turns to look at her. “Would you want me to apologize to you for your father? To show you pity?”

“No,” Vex admits, and Zahra’s gaze is intimidating and intense and she suddenly finds that she can’t look away.

“Gilded cages are still cages, that’s what they are and I know it, but I don’t want pity, darling.” The endearment sets Vex’s heart racing. “I just want somebody who understands.”

“I understand,” Vex whispers, and Zahra’s expression softens.

“You do, don’t you?”

(In the days, months, years that come to pass, Vex won’t ever be able to recall who leaned in first, whose hand settled in whose hair in tangled nimble fingers between the segments of braids. It all blurs until their lips are pressed together-- _softly softly softly_ , softer than Vex even knows what to do with because she’s never been kissed like _this_ before-- as one of Zahra’s hands grips Vex’s arm hard enough to leave a mark, and part of her hopes it does because Vex has worn marks both inside and outside but never one as lovely as this. And maybe, _maybe_ , it doesn’t matter if there are spots on her arm that bruise in the shape of Zahra’s fingertips as they hold each other while they kiss, because Vex feels-- even in this moment-- that Zahra has left marks on her soul that she will carry for the rest of her life, and blissfully so.)

A million thoughts race through her head when they finally pull apart, Zahra’s cheeks flushed.

Vex’s brain-- her dumb, idiot brain-- settles on blurting out, “I should probably go.”

To her credit, Zahra just smiles fondly, understandingly. “Of course, darling.” And then she reaches up and pats Vex’s cheek like it’s nothing, like they weren’t just locking lips a second a go.

Vex manages to stand and collect the scattered pieces of her brain and her equipment, hands trembling from the overload of everything. Before she leaves, she bites down on her bottom lip and turns to look up at Zahra, still watching her with an amused expression. Zahra raises an eyebrow at her.

“I’ll see you at practice,” Vex manages finally.

Zahra’s grin widens, and in the light it’s not hard to imagine her with sharp teeth and-- oh. Oh no. That would be kind of hot, wouldn’t it?

Vex kicks _that_ thought aside as quickly as it came, because she is _not_ about to deal with that right now.

Zahra quirks her head to one side as she looks down at her. “Of course you will, darling. Say hello to that brother of yours for me, will you?”

She says it so sweetly that Vex’s flush deepens, and all she can do is turn her back to the other girl. Fuck, she’s going to have to tell Vax.

With that, she treks her way in the direction of Syldor’s house, to her brother, to the man who’s her father in name only. She worries briefly about Zahra, about whether or father will be mad or not because she stayed out so long because of Vex.

Almost as an afterthought, Vex casts one more look back over her shoulder and stills at the sight, halfway across the field now. Zahra is no longer watching her go, instead looking up at the full moon with a soft smile on her face, the moonlight playing with shadows across her dark skin and white hair. She looks otherworldly. She looks happy.

She looks beautiful.

Vex is _super_ fucked.


End file.
